Francois Mercier

I am a Distinguished Scientist in Modeling and Simulation at the Roche Innovation Center in Basel, in Basel.

After completion of a Ph.D. in Modeling and Simulation of Biology Systems at (Univ. Lyon 1), I started working in clinical development in 1997. Endorsing various roles (data scientist, statistician, pharmacometrician) during my career, I have had the opportunity to work in different countries (France, Switzerland, USA) and different settings for the pharmaceutical industry: in a small company (Laboratoires Fournier, now Inventiva), a CRO specializing in model-based drug development (Certara), and two of the largest pharmaceutical groups (Novartis and Roche).

I use semi-mechanistic and statistical models of clinical data to support decision-making in drug development. My research focuses mainly on dose-finding, and composite data models such as joint models.

I have also started evaluating the potential of Bayesian causal inference and machine learning.

So far, I have contributed to

  • 50+ clinical development programs (Phase 1 to Phase 3)

  • 4 NDAs (fingolimod, siponimod, ocrelizumab, and entrectinib)

  • 50+ scientific articles in statistics and clinical journals

  • 60+ posters and 40+ oral communications in statistics and pharmacometrics conferences.

Francois Mercier

I am a Distinguished Scientist in Modeling and Simulation at the Roche Innovation Center in Basel, in Basel.

After completion of a Ph.D. in Modeling and Simulation of Biology Systems at (Univ. Lyon 1), I started working in clinical development in 1997. Endorsing various roles (data scientist, statistician, pharmacometrician) during my career, I have had the opportunity to work in different countries (France, Switzerland, USA) and different settings for the pharmaceutical industry: in a small company (Laboratoires Fournier, now Inventiva), a CRO specializing in model-based drug development (Certara), and two of the largest pharmaceutical groups (Novartis and Roche).

I use semi-mechanistic and statistical models of clinical data to support decision-making in drug development. My research focuses mainly on dose-finding, and composite data models such as joint models.

I have also started evaluating the potential of Bayesian causal inference and machine learning.

So far, I have contributed to

  • 50+ clinical development programs (Phase 1 to Phase 3)

  • 4 NDAs (fingolimod, siponimod, ocrelizumab, and entrectinib)

  • 50+ scientific articles in statistics and clinical journals

  • 60+ posters and 40+ oral communications in statistics and pharmacometrics conferences.